The Brooklyn Athenaeum and Reading Room was founded in 1852 by a group of prominent Brooklyn citizens as a library and respite for young men. There they could gather for instruction and that "innocent relaxation," which the wear and tear of mercantile life so imperiously demands, according to its first president, John Taylor, in his first annual report. The three story building, designed by William Field, had commercial storefronts on the ground floor, including a book store, the reading room and library on the second, and the concert/lecture hall, which could hold 2,000 people, on the third.